In The Craftsman, Richard Sennett defines craft as any work done well for its own sake. Put another way, craft is defined in its excess--in the element of work that is not required or demanded, but through which the maker makes a gift--unsought, unreciprocated--to others.

We tend to think of craft in the tangible things--in the elegant drape of handcrafted fabric, in the smoothness and style of the arm of a chair, in the way a well-made tool eases into the palm and places no burden on the wrist. But I've come to see craft in the intangibles as well--in the rhythm of a well-written sentence, in the exact number of pixels separating two columns, in the lucidity that emerges from an orderly line of code.